Communication units of a trunked communication system typically participate in various types of calls, such as, private calls, group calls, and interconnect calls. When a communication unit is active in a call or the communication unit is not in operation, it is possible that a request for a call may occur such that the communication unit is not available for the request. This call is placed in a busy queue, as a pending communication request, by an infrastructure, or fixed end, of the communication system. In addition, a request for a call to a particular communication unit may not be granted due to a lack of necessary communication resources, as when a total system busy condition occurs. This request is also placed in the busy queue by the infrastructure as a pending communication request.
In present communication systems, when necessary communication resources and a target communication unit are both available, a pending communication request for the target communication unit is converted into an active communication based on a priority level and time of receipt of the pending communication request. While this method worked for prior art communication systems, it does not allow conversion of pending communication requests into active communications based on criteria other than priority level and receipt time.
Therefore, a need exists for a method of converting pending communication requests such that the conversion is not based solely on priority level and receipt time.